Conventional painting techniques employ brushing, rolling, spraying paint onto a surface to be coated. Brushing is, perhaps, the oldest of the conventional techniques. Brushing involves the dipping of brushes of various sizes into a container of paint to collect paint onto the brush bristles and then moving the paint laden bristles along the surface to be painted which transfers paint from the brush to the desired surface. The bristles of a traditional paint brush are sometimes replaced by a section of sponge to create a foam or sponge paint brush, which is used in essentially the same manner as a traditional paint brush.
Rolling paint involves the coating of a roller with paint in a tray or a pail to collect paint on the roller and then rolling the roller along the surface to be painted which transfers the paint from the roller to the desired surface. Rollers can be of various sizes and the size used generally depends on the dimensions of the surface to be painted. Additionally, paint may be applied using a flat surfaced cut in tool in small areas or areas where precision of application is desired.
Both rolling and sponging can be a time consuming and labor intensive effort as only a finite quantity of paint can be transferred from the paint source container to the surface desired to be painted by the brush or the roller. The brush or roller must be returned to the source container and more paint collected to continue the application of paint to the desired surface. This repetitive action must be repeated many times to completely cover the desired surface and is thus both time consuming and labor intensive.
Spray painting involves the release of paint from a pressurized container through a nozzle that breaks up the paint into fine-misted droplets. Paint is propelled from the nozzle to the surface to be coated. Although spray painting is both a faster and less labor intensive means of painting a surface is has the disadvantage of propelling paint droplets in undesired directions and coating surfaces other than the desired surface.
The desire to reduce the time consumption and labor intensiveness associated with traditional brush and roller painting techniques yet eliminate the spatter concerns and imprecision of spray painting led to the invention of powered paint roller systems as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,415—Painting System (granted to John C. Woolpert on Jan. 20, 1976). The Woolpert patent describes a painting system in which the paint is fed to the paint applicators from a pressurized container. The container has pressurized water on one side of an internal membrane and paint on the other. The hydraulic pressure on the membrane is used to push the paint out of the container through tubing to the paint applicators.
Currently on the market are a variety of electric powered paint roller systems from manufacturers such as Wagner®, Black and Decker® and Ryobi®. These systems typically use an electric pump to transfer paint from the paint can through tubing to an applicator. The electric pump is powered from a wall electrical outlet and the pump and the paint can sit on the floor with long tubing connecting them to the paint applicator. The disadvantage of units such as these is that they restrict the movement of the painter around the room or from room to room. To move farther than allowed by the paint supply tubing, the painter must reposition the unit to another location. Although these units are significantly more efficient with regard to time consumption and labor expenditure than the traditional manual methods of painting with a roller or a brush, they still restrict the painter movements around the room and from room to room, thus there is a need for a portable powered paint system.